The Austrian Bundesliga recently introduced a ‘split’ league design format with three points awarded for a win and one for a draw. The league comprises 12 teams and each team plays the other once at home and once away in a first phase of fixtures yielding a total of 22 games per team. The league then ‘splits’ into two sections with the top six playing in a ‘Championship’ section and the bottom six in a ‘Relegation’ section. In the second phase of fixtures, each team then plays the others within its own section both at home and away yielding an additional ten games per team. The overall number of games played in the season is 32. The table below provides the league position of the 12 teams at the end of the first phase of fixtures.

Table 1: Austrian Bundesliga First Phase (2019/20)

	Team	Games	Points
	Salzburg	22	52
	Rapid Vienna	22	45
	LASK	22	42
	Sturm Graz	22	39
	Wolfsberger AC	22	33
	WSG Tirol	22	30
	Hartberg	22	29
	Austria Vienna	22	25
	St.Pölten	22	21
	Rheindorf Altach	22	21
	Ried	22	16
	Admira Wacker	22	14

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The following table provides the outcomes after the ‘split’ when the second phase of fixtures are completed:

Table 2: Austrian Bundesliga Second Phase (2019/20)

	Team & Section	Games	Points
	Championship Section
	Salzburg	10	25
	Rapid Vienna	10	14
	LASK	10	14
	Sturm Graz	10	9
	Wolfsberger AC	10	11
	WSG Tirol	10	8
	Relegation Section
	Hartberg	10	18
	Austria Vienna	10	17
	St.Pölten	10	17
	Rheindorf Altach	10	13
	Ried	10	12
	Admira Wacker	10	3

1. What do you think the primary motive of the league administrators was in introducing this ‘split’ design?

2. Compute and compare the relative standard deviation statistics for competitive balance for (i) the first phase of fixtures, and (ii) for the ‘Championship’ and the ‘Relegation’ sections. What do you conclude about any differences obtained?